One of only 16 researchers nationwide invited to make a presentation as a “Young Academic Investigator” during the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Jeff Johnson of the chemistry faculty was recognized for the distinction during the fall luncheon of the college’s division of the natural and applied sciences on Thursday, Oct. 4.

He was the only speaker from a primarily undergraduate institution at the national ACS meeting, which was held in Philadelphia, Pa., in August. His presentation was on “Transition metal-catalyzed activation of carbon-carbon single bonds: Mechanistic understanding leading to new methodologies.”

Johnson, who is an assistant professor of chemistry and Towsley Research Scholar at Hope, has been a member of the faculty since 2007. His research, on which he works collaboratively with Hope students during both the school year and summer, is on developing new organic reactivity catalyzed by transition metals.

He has received more than $1 million in external funding since coming to the college. His grants have included an Undergraduate New Investigator Grant from the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund (ACS-PRF); a five-year Camille and Henry Dreyfus Faculty Start-Up Award; a Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Award; a National Science Foundation (NSF) - Major Research Instrumentation award for a remotely accessible 400 MHz NMR spectrometer; and, earlier this year, a major award through the NSF’s “Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program.”

He received the division for the natural and applied sciences “James N. Boelkins Research Promise Award” in March 2012, and was named a Towsley Research Scholar by the college in January 2010.

He completed his bachelor’s degree at Gustavus-Adolphus College in 2000, and his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin in 2004. Prior to coming to Hope, he served as a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Colorado State University.